Avengers: Age of Ultron (4½ Stars)

This is the eleventh film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, released in May 2015. Stan Lee appears in a short scene as a proud World War II veteran at a party in the New York Avengers headquarters. Thor is sharing a flask with Captain America.

Thor describes the drink, "This was aged for one thousand years in the barrels built from the wreck of Grunhel's fleet. It is not meant for mortal men".

Stan Lee, sitting nearby, butts in, "Neither was Omaha Beach, blondie. Stop trying to scare us. Come on".

Thor agrees and pours a small amount into a glass. Moments later we see Stan being carried out slurring the single word "Excelsior".

He really was an army veteran. In 1942 he volunteered to join the US Army, and he served in the Signal Corps from 1942 to 1945. After initially serving as a lineman he was transferred to the Training Film Division, where he wrote material such as training manuals and the scripts for propaganda films.

In this wartime photograph Sergeant Stanley Lieber – that was his real name – is shown designing a poster. That's curious. In his career he was never an artist.

In June 2017 Stan Lee was made a lifetime member of the Signal Corps Regimental Association. Better late than never. Most people knew nothing about his military history, so it needed a comic book fan in the Signal Corps to suggest him.

This is a video of the award being presented. After the presentation Stan says, "This is one of my proudest moments. Excelsior!"

Often when news reports talk about Stan Lee they refer to him as "Stan Lee, the creator of Spider-Man". That description gives a point of reference for the people who aren't dedicated comic fans, but it's always annoyed me. He created so many other characters, both heroes and villains. Here are a few of the other characters he created, all of them featured in "Avengers: Age of Ultron".

Hulk (May 1962)

Thor (August 1962)

Iron Man (March 1963)

Nick Fury (May 1963)

Quicksilver (March 1964)

Scarlet Witch (March 1964)

Black Widow (April 1964)

Hawkeye (September 1964)

I can't guarantee that their film representations resemble their original appearances in the comics. If you want on-screen realism you have to watch Axel Braun's Marvel films.

Success Rate:  + 1.2

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Avengers: Age of Ultron (4½ Stars)

Aaron Johnson as Quicksilver.

Fans of Marvel films have probably noticed something strange in recent films. There are two different actors who play Quicksilver, Aaron Johnson in the Avengers films and Evan Peters in the X-Men films. Their secret identities are almost the same: Pietro Maximoff in the Avengers films and Peter Maximoff in the X-Men films. In the X-Men films he's an only child and his father is Magneto. In the Avengers films he has a twin sister called Wanda and his father is unknown.

The reason for this confusion is the legal ownership of Marvel's characters by film studios. 20th Century Fox bought the rights to the X-Men, while the Avengers and most of Marvel's other characters belong to Marvel Studios. Quicksilver and his sister, known in the comics as the Scarlet Witch, are a grey zone. They were first introduced as villains in X-Men #4, but they later became members of the Avengers in Avengers #16. For that reason they can be used in both film series, although 20th Century Fox has decided not to use Wanda as a character. Magneto can't appear or even be named in the Avengers films because his character belongs exclusively to 20th Century Fox.

Evan Peters as Quicksilver.

Now the problem has been solved, temporarily at least. Quicksilver has been killed in "Avengers: Age of Ultron". Yes, that's a spoiler, but I assume my readers all know about it by now. I say "temporarily", because there's a common saying that "In Marvel comics nobody stays dead except for Ben Parker". That's not just true of the comics. Jean Grey was also killed in "X-Men: The Last Stand" but returned in "X-Men: Days of Future Past" after Wolverine changed the past. Somehow it's easier to accept that in comics than in films.

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Avengers: Age of Ultron (4½ Stars)

I'm continuing with my Easter Marvel films session. If I watch "Age of Ultron" today and "Ant-Man" tomorrow, that means I shall have watched the 9th, 11th and 12th films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). I skipped the 10th film, "Guardians of the Galaxy", but that's not a problem because it's not in the continuity of the Earth-based Marvel films. As far as I know the Guardians and the Avengers won't meet each other until "Avengers: Infinity War", the 19th film in the MCU.

After watching the film today I realised that the MCU's version of Vision has the same characteristics as his counterpart in the comics, even though he has different powers and a different origin. It seems that the MCU Vision is supposed to be a combination of the Vision and Adam Warlock. In the comics both characters are placid philosophers, but the difference is that Adam Warlock is plagued by self-doubt and guilt, emotions lacking from the Vision. The only inner torment felt by the Vision was regret that he wasn't a human, as brought to a head in Avengers #58, "Even an android can cry", considered to be one of the best comics ever written.

Yesterday I watched "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" and I made a few remarks about the budding romance between Natasha Romanoff and Steve Rogers. I wondered how it would continue. Now I have my answer. It doesn't continue at all. In "Age of Ultron" her only interest is in Bruce Banner. It seems that Steve's kiss wasn't good enough to keep her interest.

I also asked whether Natasha was ever referred to as the Black Widow, and I found an answer in this film. In one of the early scenes a fellow Avenger (off-screen, but I believe it was Captain America) calls her Widow (without "Black"). That's a good enough answer.

Google has introduced an annoying new limitation. The length of a post's labels, including the spaces, isn't allowed to exceed 200 characters. I've already reviewed this film before, and I wanted to copy the labels unchanged from this post, but I got an error message. The length of the labels is 240 characters. That means I have to remove at least three actor names from my new post. I've removed Stan Lee, Josh Brolin and Stellan Skarsgard, because they have the shortest screen time in the film. That brings me down to 198 characters. I'll try to re-add them later in the posts list without going via the editor. That might work. If you see the three missing labels when you read my post you'll know that I succeeded.

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Avengers: Age of Ultron (4½ Stars)

It's interesting to read recent interviews with Joss Whedon, the man who directed "Avengers: Age of Ultron". He says he's disappointed with the film. It seems that the more time passes the more critical he becomes of the film and the harsher he judges himself for his failure. That's rather amazing, considering the film's success. "Avengers: Age of Ulton" earned $1.4 billion at the box office, making it the seventh highest earning film ever.

I don't consider it to be a bad film at all. It captures the essence of the 1970's Avengers comics that I love so much. If anything, the film is in the style of the Roy Thomas Avengers comics.

The film's weaknesses are things endemic to Marvel's films, things that Joss Whedon can't be blamed for. The characters are changed from the way they appear in the original comics. They have different powers, different origins and different costumes. To take a simple example: in the comics Ultron is created by Hank Pym (Ant-Man), but in the film he's created by Tony Stark (Iron Man). If I were to describe every way this film's characters deviate from the comics I would be writing for hours.

I've heard rumours that the original version of the film was three and a half hours long, but it was shortened to make it more suitable for the cinema. That's a shame. I hoped for the release of a Director's Cut, but Joss Whedon has said there won't be one. I see that in the context of his disappointment with the film. I'm hoping that the studio will force his hand or even release the original version without his consent.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (4½ Stars)

I think I'll keep this review to an absolute minimum, because it hasn't been released in the USA yet. I don't like to give spoilers, and most of what I would like to say, both in praise and criticism of the film, would give too much away. I'll write a more complete review when I buy the film on Blu-ray.

I'll restrict myself in this review to two issues. Actually, it's only one issue, but it involves two characters, the Vision and the Scarlet Witch. In the film Wanda Maximoff isn't called the Scarlet Witch, but that's the name she uses in the Marvel comics that I know and love.

The issue is the differences between characters in the film and the comics, in particular the differences in their powers. Wanda's powers in the film bear almost no resemblance to what she can do in the comics. In the film she seems to be able to fire energy bolts, she can read minds, she can give people nightmares, and she can perform acts of telekinesis. This sounds very similar to the original powers of Jean Grey, the X-Men's Marvel Girl. In the comics her abilities were described as "hex powers", a rather erratic gift over which she had only limited control. Whenever she used a "hex" on someone it altered the laws of probability, so that something happened which was unlucky for the person and at the same time lucky for herself. In the 1990's her powers were redefined as involving "chaos magic", but I don't accept such latter day changes to the Marvel characters as canon. Back in the 1970's Wanda was taught witchcraft by Agatha Harkness, but this knowledge of the dark arts was something she could do in addition to her natural powers.

The film's Vision is also far removed from the character that we know in the comics. In the comics he is an android, created by using the body of the original Human Torch and the brain patterns of Simon Williams aka Wonder Man. In the film he's a robot created using the artificial intelligence of Tony Stark's robot butler Jarvis. (In the comics Jarvis was a real person, but that's another story altogether). In the comics the Vision has a synthetic gem on his forehead, probably part of his own body, but in the film it's the Mind Gem, one of the Infinity Gems. In the comics the Vision has the power to change his body density, but this ability is missing altogether in the film. In fact, it's not quite clear to me what powers the Vision is supposed to have in the film. I have a slinking suspicion that he will be used as a replacement for Adam Warlock, who was one of the main characters in the battle against Thanos.

I did enjoy the film, as is obvious from my rating, despite my disappointment at the redefinition of the central characters. I'm sure it will be one of the most successful films of 2015, maybe even the most successful film.